The English colonists who landed at Jamestown 400 years ago undermined an ecosystem and changed the continent forever.

It is just possible that John Rolfe was responsible for the wormsspecifically the common night crawler and the red marsh worm, creatures that did not exist in the Americas before Columbus. Rolfe was a colonist in Jamestown, Virginia, the first successful English colony in North America. Most people know him today, if they know him at all, as the man who married Pocahontas. A few history buffs understand that Rolfe was one of the primary forces behind Jamestown's eventual success. The worms hint at a third, still more important role: Rolfe inadvertently helped unleash a convulsive and permanent change in the American landscape.

I don’t know how many of you actually read the article, but it is worth studying. It is quite different from any of the history (or natral history) that we learned in school. For one thing, we were never taught that the Indians actually deliberately burned off the forest and grasslands from time to time. In fact, this is the second time in 2 weeks that I’ve encountered that little taught fact. As school kids, we were always taught that pre-history forest fires were caused by lightning.

There is a book called “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus” written by Charles Mann that you might be interested in.

It goes into depth on the numerous indigenous cultures in the Americas right before contact with Europeans. What they did and how they managed their environment was NOT taught (and most likely not known) when I was going to school in anthropology in the late ‘70s - early ‘80s.

Fire was a big part of it. Very interesting read. I highly recommend it.

One nit to pick: the article states that the ship's ballast was dumped when the tobacco was loaded to balance the ship. While this might have occurred, the ballast was usually dumped earlier in order to get the ship higher in the water so it could get closer to the dock in shallow-water ports.

When they opened the Oakland Museum in the 1960s much of the exhibits were based on the “Fire Cycle” of the California landscape. The exhibits were beautiful and showed how periodic forest and grass fires rejuvenated the landscape with plant forms that could not thrive in a landscape with mature trees emerging from the charcoal. There are some native seeds that will not grow without the stimulus of fire.

BUT, they never once claimed in their exhibits that the Indians started some of those fires. They always blamed lightning. Of course, anyone who has lived in CA for any length of time knows that lightning storms are not as prevalent as they are in the Mid West, for instance.

I think I read an article (or excerpt) from Charles Mann’s book recently. The title sounds very familiar. Maybe it was here.

When you get to the part in early Jamestowne history where they describe the “starving time”, as well as first and second supply, I realize that it is a miracle that I am here today, being descended from an immigrant from 1st supply.

Even so, there seems to be a slight break in the descent, because that first ancestor seems to have vanished from the record, and his daughter came from England to take over his estate. She married a surviving settler and then died in childbirth. 3 out of 4 settlers died in the first years of Jamestowne settlement, so it is a miracle that there are any descendents at all.

Have you ever visited Jamestown settlement? I did in the summer of 1999 (both Jamestownes — the reconstruction and the original site). Out on the penninsula at the site of the James Fort it was so hot, humid, and insect-ridden that I could not imagine how any of the settlers survived. You coudn’t even breathe. From school we always were taught that the winters killed them off. I think the summers must have been worse. I don’t see how any work could get done.

My favorite T shirt is from Yorktown. It is a screen printed Betsy Ross flag in “antique” colors on a subtle stripe of blue on blue. I bought that shirt at the Yorktown souvenir store in 1999 because my husband didn’t give me enough time to buy the Jamestown shirt with the ship on the front that I wanted.

Those (I have 2) Betsy Ross shirts have been worn a million times and washed just as frequently. They have never wrinkled, never shrunk, never faded, never lost their shape. They always fit well, no matter how much weight I gained, or lost. They look like new today. I get compliments on that shirt every time I wear it.

My favorite T shirt is from Yorktown. It is a screen printed Betsy Ross flag in “antique” colors on a subtle stripe of blue on blue. I bought that shirt at the Yorktown souvenir store in 1999 because my husband didn’t give me enough time to buy the Jamestown shirt with the ship on the front that I wanted.

Those (I have 2) Betsy Ross shirts have been worn a million times and washed just as frequently. They have never wrinkled, never shrunk, never faded, never lost their shape. They always fit well, no matter how much weight I gained, or lost. They look like new today. I get compliments on that shirt every time I wear it.

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